Delayed Reaction
by NeverEndingStoryTeller
Summary: Ryosaku One-Shot. Sakuno leaves Ryoma and he later regrets not taking action.


**Disclaimer:** **I do not own Prince of Tennis or any of the characters within.**

She stared hard at herself in the mirror, watching as her reflection stared back, its gaze unflinching as though silently mocking her. Her usual gentle smile now hard like steel and her eyes, once warm and chocolate brown, now glazed over and tearful.

Sakuno watched as her reflection met her gaze steadily, a fierce determination now shining in those coffee brown orbs, and made her decision. _"It's time"_ she thought,_ "I have to put an end to this- it's not like he cares anyway"_ she added bitterly to herself.

Hastily, she wiped away her tears and reached her delicate, pale hand up to touch her mahogany coloured hair, once down to her waist but now lay in a short and sleek bob falling just above her shoulders.

With one last glance at herself in the mirror, she turned on her heel and left.

Ryoma's POV -

He took one last look at himself in his mirror. He reached out a hand and attempted to flatten his unruly emerald green locks and, after deeming himself presentable, walked out of his room and set off outside.

Now, normally THE Echizen Ryoma wasn't one to give much thought to his appearance or in fact what others thought of him (they could all fuck themselves as far as he was concerned) but there were special circumstances where he would at least _try_ to look good (though many would point out that he didn't need to as he already had heaps upon heaps of fan girls chasing him every second of the day) like tonight for instance.

Tonight he had a date with his girlfriend of one year, and granddaughter of his couch, Sakuno Ryuzaki. She had called him up earlier while he was at home and asked if he was free later, and, though he acted all cool and indifferent about it, he really did want to look, and, be his best for her. Also, despite what everyone said about his aloofness and how he didn't care about anything except tennis, he did. He liked- no, he _loved_ her. A lot. He didn't even know when it was that he had started falling for her. All he knew was one second they were 12 years old and she was nothing more than his couch's granddaughter and the next, she was the 16 year old beauty she was today.

By the time he'd realised that he'd begun calling her beautiful in his head he knew something had to be done and so, by their first year in high school, he decided to ask her out. And she had said yes and from then on they went on random dates throughout the year and he walked her to and from school every day.

To him it was perfect. After she officially became his girlfriend none of her fan boys (which she had a lot of by the way) bothered her- at least not openly, and never in his presence. Everyone in the whole school knew she was his and his only and no one, not even the thickest kids in school, dared to mess with the prince and his princess.

Back to Sakuno's POV –

Sakuno sat and waited patiently for Ryoma on a park bench, not too far from both of their houses. It was sort of ironic she thought, that the very bench that Ryoma had asked her out on, she was now going to end their relationship on.

Idly, she looked around, noting how dark the sky had become already that she could already see the moon and the stars. In the distance, she saw someone moving towards her, As soon as the figure walked under a lamppost. She could tell straightaway who it was by the signature white cap on his head.

"_All right"_ She told herself _"He's here. It's now or never Sakuno."_

Calmly, she waited until he was less than a foot from her before she motioned to the bench, wordlessly asking him to sit down. He did so with a very confused glance at her, his golden orbs silently questioning her own.

"Sakuno wha-" He started before she cut him off with her cherry, pink lips over his.

"Sorry" She whispered, "I just wanted one last taste."

She watched carefully as Ryoma's surprised expression showed for a split second before being replaced by his usual expressionless face. He didn't care at all. He couldn't even at least put on a hurt expression. That's how much she means to him. And even though she'd expected it, it still hurt to know that despite it being him who asked her out in the first place and being with her for a year she was still so insignificant to him.

In his eyes, she was, and always would be, just another annoying, bothersome fan girl.

Amazingly, she wasn't even crying, it was as though even her eyes had grown tired of crying over this one boy and had decided enough was enough. She had to end this- now, before she lost her nerve.

"Ryoma" Her voice cracked a little at saying his name but she continued on in a stronger voice, gradually sounding louder and more confident with each word. "I really love you, but I just don't think this is working out for either of us." Here she paused again and looked him dead in the eye. Frustratingly, he was looking back at her with equal intensity. He almost looked... hurt. But he couldn't be. He was probably just annoyed that she was breaking up with him instead of the other way around.

"I think we should break up" There. She'd finally said it. "It's probably better for both of us, but, we can still be friends, right?" She added cheerfully at the end, knowing full well that it was impossible. They weren't friends when they were dating, why would they be afterwards?

"Hn" That was all he said, not even one full word.

"_Well,"_ she thought to herself _"it's not like I really expected a heartfelt goodbye or anything." _And with that she promptly got up from the bench, bowed politely to Ryoma, said a quiet goodbye, and turned on her heel and left for home.

She knew full well that her brave facade would crumble as soon as she turned away from him and, no sooner had she turned the corner and disappeared out of his sight, than she felt the hot, warm tears dripping down her face.

Laughing bitterly to herself, she mumbled under her breath "Sakuno you idiot. Why couldn't you have fallen for someone else?" She knew though, that just as Snow White could not have even survived without her prince, nor could she without her own tennis prince. But Sakuno also knew that she was not Snow White and she would be able to get over this, after all, who said Ryoma was the only person in Seigaku with determination? She could be damn persistent too! After all, she never gave up on tennis even though everyone told her she was crap. She kept at it until her latent tennis abilities suddenly bloomed, shocking everybody (especially her grandmother, though she beamed with pride at her) as she became vice captain of the girl's tennis team in her 3rd year in Seigaku middle school.

She wasn't the meek little twelve-year old she used to be. She was strong and this was nothing more than a bump in the road she just had to cross.

Ryoma's POV –

He was in shock. Not only had the girl of his dreams just broken up with him but she had done it so easily, like it really wasn't that much of a big deal to her at all. I mean they'd been going out for the past _year_ for God's sake and here she goes and just up and ends it. He thought it was _perfect. _What went wrong?! Maybe he should go up to her and apologise – but he couldn't.

Even though his heart was screaming at him to run after her and beg her to come back, he just couldn't. His pride wouldn't allow it. Imagine him, Echizen Ryoma, tennis star on his way to international superstardom, begging his girlfriend to take him back. It was laughable and he had no doubt that he'd be seriously mocked for it by his senpai taichi, never mind the fact that his baka oyaji would never let him live it down.

"Whatever" He thought to himself arrogantly "She won't stay mad for ever. This will probably all blow over by tomorrow anyway."

It wasn't because he was an unemotional bastard that didn't care about her that made him think that way, it was just because he couldn't even comprehend that Sakuno would ever leave him and instead , due to his enormous ego, decided that she was just being over emotional, like women always are, and would soon see sense and apologise to him.

So he waited.

And he waited.

Until a whole year had passed by and he was reduced to watching silently from the shadows as Sakuno was walked home by Tooyama Kintarou after practice one day. And the next day. And the next day, until it was just a routine thing for him to pick Sakuno up that no-one even questioned it anymore. He stayed silent even as he heard her call out "Kin-kun!" and rush over towards the red haired tennis player, the way she used to run towards him.

Somewhere, deep down in his heart, he felt the same stabbing pain he felt each time he'd looked over to his side only to see she wasn't there, it was like his heart was literally being shredded to pieces in front of his very own eyes.. It wasn't like she was avoiding him or anything; in fact, she spoke to him more often than she did when they were together, not to mention she also stopped stuttering around him. She gave him the same treatment as everyone she met; courteous and politely acknowledging.

It had taken far too long for his liking but, with the help of his old senpai taichi (who had all shook their heads at him and lectured him in unison) he finally realised how wrong he was towards her. If he'd just paid her a bit more attention, let her know how much she really means to him, maybe he'd be the one she was laughing with, taking her home each day, the one she'd smile that sweet, heart- stopping smile for.

Ryoma watched her leave on the arm of another man. It was his fault.

He'd waited too long.

**Author's Note:****God! How sucky was that ending?! I'm really sorry for that, I just sort of lost it at the end. **


End file.
